the.com/sliver
the smallest possible portion that still demands your full attention when it lodges under your skin
means A thin, narrow piece of something split or cut from a larger whole.
from From Middle English 'sliveren,' to split or cleave, related to 'slive' (to cut or slice). It belongs to a family of Germanic words about splitting and cleaving — a cousin, possibly, of 'slice' and 'split' — and has always carried that sense of something cleanly broken away. The soft 'sl-' beginning echoes a whole cluster of English words for things that slip, slide, and slide apart.
- etymology
- From Middle English meaning to cleave or split apart
- glassmaking
- Slivers of obsidian once made the sharpest blades known
- pie law
- A sliver eaten standing up contains zero calories, allegedly
- splinter physics
- Tiny wood slivers hurt more than large cuts
- moon phase
- A thin crescent is literally called a sliver moon
silver sliver coins — thin silver strips minted as currency, notably us dimes at 90% silver until 1964
splinter in finger — wood or metal sliver embedded in skin, commonly removed with tweezers in emergency rooms daily
sliver of moon — crescent moon phase visible as thin bright arc, occurs during waxing/waning crescents each lunar cycle